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Wayne Koestenbaum
Wayne Koestenbaum (born 1958) is an American poet, academic, and cultural critic. Life Koestenbaum earned a B.A. from Harvard University, an M.A. from Johns Hopkins University, and a Ph.D. from Princeton University. He lives in New York City, where he is Distinguished Professor of English at the City University of New York Graduate Center. Writing Criticism Koestenbaum's work, both in poetry and non-fiction, has explored the social and mental life of American queer intellectuals. His best-known critical book, The Queen's Throat, is a rigorous exploration of a phenomenon frequently discussed casually but seldom considered from a scholarly viewpoint: the predilection of gay men for opera. Koestenbaum's claim is that opera derives its power from a kind of physical sympathy between singer and audience that has as much to do with desire as with hearing. He says of the act of listening: :The dance of sound waves on the tympanum, and the sigh I exhale in sympathy with the singer, persuade me that I have a body—if only by analogy, if only a second-best copy of the singer's body. I'm a lemming, imprinted by the soprano, my existence an aftereffect of her crescendo. (42) Koestenbaum's conclusion is that gay men's affinity for opera tells us as much about opera and its inherent questions about masculinity as it does about homosexuality. In Hotel Theory, a critical discussion of the meaning of hotel life, and the aesthetic implications of such isolation, runs concurrently with a fictionalised account of a hotel encounter between Liberace and Lana Turner. Humiliation, Koestenbaum's critically acclaimed disquisition on the meaning of humiliation (both personal and universal) was praised by John Waters as "the funniest, smartest, most heartbreaking yet powerful book I've read in a long time." Koestenbaum starred in a web series in support of this book, "Dear Wayne, I've Been Humiliated...", which was dubbed "the mother of all book trailers" by The New York Observer. Poetry Koestenbaum's poetry is often more measured than his criticism. It frequently comments on itself — on the disorderly process of poetry — as in "Men I Led Astray" (from The Milk of Inquiry): :I haven't said enough about the ragged sun, its satisfaction in being the one to bind my life — to bring the filthy pieces together, on its way to more important tasks. Recognition Koestenbaum’s honors include a “Discovery”/''The Nation'' Poetry Prize and a Whiting Writer’s Award. Wayne Koestenbaum b. 1958, Poetry Foundation, Web, Oct. 27, 2012. Publications Poetry *''Ode to Anna Moffo, and other poems''. New York: Persea, 1990. *''Rhapsodies of A Repeat Offender: Poems''. New York: Persea, 1994. *''The Milk of Inquiry: Poems''. New York: Persea, 1999. *''Model Homes''. Rochester, NY: BOA Editions, 2004. *''Best-Selling Jewish Porn Films: New poems''. New York: Turtle Point, 2006. *''Blue Stranger with Mosaic Background''. New York: Turtle Point, 2012. Opera libretto *''Jackie O'' (DVD). Genova, Italy: Dynamic, 2009. Novel *''Moira Orfei in Aigues-Mortes: A novel''. New York: Soft Skull, 2004. Short fiction *''Hotel Theory: 8 dossiers''. New York: Soft Skull Press, 2007. Non-fiction *''Double Talk: The erotics of male literary collaboration''. New York: Routledge, 1989. *''The Queen's Throat: Opera, homosexuality, and the mystery of desire''. New York: Poseidon, 1993. *''Jackie Under My Skin: Interpreting an icon''. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1995. *''Alice Neel: Paintings from the thirties''. New York: Robert Miller Gallery, 1997. *''Cleavage: Essays on sex, stars, and aesthetics''. New York: Ballantine Books, 2000. *''Andy Warhol''. New York: Viking, 2001; London: Weidenfield & Nicholson, 2001. *''Humiliation''. New York: Picador, 2011. *''The Anatomy of Harpo Marx''. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2012. *''My 1980s, and other essays''. New York: Farrar, Straus, & Giroux, 2013. Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.Search results = au:Wayne Koestenbaum, WorldCat, OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc. Web, Oct. 26, 2014. See also * List of U.S. poets References Notes External links ;Poems *"Outside In" at Triple Canopy (online magazine) *Wayne Kostenbaum profile & 4 poems] at the Academy of American Poets. *Wayne Koestenbaum b. 1958 at the Poetry Foundation. ;Audio / video *Wayne Koestenbaum at YouTube *2011 radio interview at The Bat Segundo Show *Dear Wayne: I've Been Humiliated (Web Series) ;Books *Wayne Koestenbaum at Amazon.com ;About *Faculty page at CUNY *[http://www.indexmagazine.com/interviews/wayne_koestenbaum.shtml Interview with Index Magazine] *[http://bidoun.com/bdn/magazine/08-interviews/wayne-koestenbaum-with-bruce-hainley/ Interview with Bidoun] *Wayne Koestenbaum - Notes on Affinity (Villa Gillet / Clé des langues) Category:Living people Category:People from New York City Category:American poets Category:American literary critics Category:LGBT writers from the United States Category:LGBT Jews Category:Gay writers Category:Harvard University alumni Category:Johns Hopkins University alumni Category:Princeton University alumni Category:City University of New York faculty Category:1958 births Category:20th-century poets Category:English-language poets Category:Poets Category:American academics